William Fichtner is joining the cast of Prison Break.

(The article linked to says what the character is.)

Also, I read that Billie Piper is starring in a BBC production of The Ruby in the Smoke based on the book by Phillip Pullman.

Wait wait wait. Billie Piper is way too old to play the lead in The Ruby in the Smoke. The girl is like 15 when the story starts! (By the end of the trilogy, she's in her mid-20s.) Also, she'll have to prim up her accent quite a bit.

(It's a good set of stories, and I think well-suited to a Beeb production: Victorian London, penny-dreadful plots, fun characters. An ex bare-knuckles boxer vicar; his twin brother who went to sea and came back an opium addict; a street urchin; an aspiring photographer. But Pullman was also true to the historical period: when the fighting starts, the women get out of the way.)

I loved the books. We'll see how she does. Assuming, of course, that it makes it over here.

she'll have to prim up her accent quite a bit.

I doubt many British actors get very far without being able to tweak their accents.

Yeah, but Billie Piper started out as a pop star, not an actor, so she probably doesn't have the full-on training that Tennant or Eccleston does. I STILL wish they'd used Tennant's real accent, dammit.

she probably doesn't have the full-on training that Tennant or Eccleston does

I don't know how much training either of them do have, but if it takes training, judging by my experience watching British TV in the 80s, there must be a lot of schools out there full to the brim. It's not something that ever stuck out as uncommon.

Tennant went to the Scottish equivalent of RADA and has worked with the RSC; Eccleston went to the Central School of Speech and Drama. So, yes, trained actors both.

One of the things I love about British actors is that they are expected to be able to do accents. (Except American, which they are as bad at as Americans are at British.)

So, yes, trained actors both.

I'm not comparing her directly to them, though. Never was.

For all I know, she's crap at accents. My point is merely that being a British actor able to shift accents isn't, as far as I can tell, dependent on being trained.

Except American, which they are as bad at as Americans are at British.

I think there are more British actors who can do a generic American accent decently than there are American actors who can pass in the other direction.

Well, I can count (off the top of my head) two British actors who can do a generic American accent correctly and no Americans, so you win.

(Off the top of my head: Miranda Richardson, Hugh Laurie.) No, Alexis Denisov doesn't count, because he trained in England.

Is there a generic British accent, in the way that there is (you know, Des Moines) in the States?